October 16, 2024 (Mogadishu, Somalia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in collaboration with Somalia’s Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy and with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), conducted a two-day Somalia Blue Economy Inter-Ministerial Coordination and Resource Mobilisation Meeting in Mogadishu.
To domesticate the IGAD Blue Economy Strategy, IGAD supported all its Member States to develop their own national Blue Economy Strategy, aligned with the IGAD and AU Blue Economy Strategies. Somalia has started implementing its National BE Strategy, and one of the key milestones attained includes the establishment of the Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy. Blue Economy has a multi-sectorial nature and coordination at national and regional levels is very essential.
The Somalia National Ministerial consultative meeting convened experts from the national Ministries and agencies of Somalia such as Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Ports and Marine Transport, Ministry of Water and Energy, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism as well as experts from development partners from FAO, UNIDO and UNDP Somalia with the aim of enhancing national Blue Economy governance by fostering collaboration across key sectors and boosting resource mobilisation for the implementation of the National Blue Economy Strategy of Somalia.
On the first day of the meeting, experts from different Blue Economy sectors brainstormed about the National Blue Economy Coordination Platform and reviewed the technical documents on how to effectively coordinate and institutionalize Blue Economy coordination for efficient resource mobilisation to implement the National BE strategy.
At the opening session of the meeting, Wassie Anteneh (PhD), Senior Blue Economy and Fisheries Expert, on behalf of Mr. Daher Elmi, Director of Agriculture and Environment Division of IGAD, noted that strengthening Blue Economy governance in the IGAD Member States, is a key priority to enhance Blue Economy in the region. In the IGAD Blue Economy support, Somalia is special because of its rich blue resources. It has the longest coastline in Africa. IGAD’s support to Somalia for the development of Blue Economy in the region is therefore very much commendable. In this regard, IGAD has been discussing with FAO Somalia Office on how to strengthen Somalia’s BE Coordination Platform and organized this consultative meeting. He also added that IGAD has supported all its Member States to develop and implement national BE strategy. With the help of the African Development Bank, IGAD has worked with the Government of Somalia to develop a Blue Economy investment plan, based on the National Blue Economy Strategy. Ms. Raisa Mohamed, BE Director, Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy, officially opened the first day meeting and thanked IGAD and SIDA for the support to enhance the Blue Economy of Somalia.
On the second day of the meeting, Ministers overseeing endorsed the Terms of Reference for the Somalia National BE Inter-ministerial Coordination Platform. IGAD Head of Mission to the Federal Republic of Somalia, @MohamoudKaarshe representing H.E. @DrWorkneh, IGAD Executive Secretary on his opening remarks emphasised that one of the key priorities of IGAD is to work with our Member States to develop their national Blue Economy. This is well spelled out in the IGAD Regional Corporate Strategy 2021-2025, as well as in the IGAD Regional Blue Economy Strategy whose vision is an inclusive and sustainable Blue Economy that significantly contributes to the Horn of Africa’s transformation.
The 2nd day inter-ministerial meeting was officially opened by H.E Ahmed Hasan Aden, Minister of Fisheries and Blue Economy. H.E Ahmed Hasen highlighted that the Federal Government of Somalia is strongly committed for the sustainable utilisation of its Blue Economy resources and he also thanked the support from IGAD.
The National Inter-Ministerial Consultative meeting concluded successfully and below are the key highlights.
- The Terms of Reference for the Somalia National BE Inter-ministerial Coordination Platform was endorsed.
- Reviewed and validated the mapping report on the BE stakeholders existing in Somalia.
- Established strategies for resource mobilization to support the implementation of the National Blue Economy Strategy.
Alongside IGAD, development partners such as FAO, UNDP, and UNIDO played a crucial role in the technical validation of the documents.
The meeting was organized with financial support from the Government of Sweden, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) Project titled “Enhancing Blue Economy in the IGAD Member States for Biodiversity Conservations and Livelihood Diversification.”
